A few years ago there was an outbreak of the Hantavirus on the Reservations of the Southwest. Isn’t it entirely possible that something that ‘normal’, yet deadly could have run through the Clovis People?

I sometimes think ‘modern’ scientific people don’t remember that just 75 or 80 years ago, people did from infections that we think nothing of in 2013. So, to me, a severe outbreak of something like the Hantavirus could destroy an ancient people. And if scavengers got to bodies, and wind and weather in general, there might not be a tons of bones in an old adobe town.

If the theory that the Clovis originated in Europe is correct than a virus brought by the paleo-indians from Asia would indeed be a good explanation, combined of course with the paleo-indidans wiping out the survivors.

The original article pisses me off. It says, in part, “Researchers argue that no appropriately sized impact craters from that time period have been discovered, and no shocked material or any other features of impact have been found in sediments. They also found that samples presented in support of the impact hypothesis were contaminated with modern material and that no physics model can support the theory.”

Unless they have more, this proves nothing. An impact on the ice sheet would not leave much evidence, but more to the point, a Tunguska-like airblast would leave none.

I’ll accept that they may have disproven some of the evidence for it, but that does not mean it didn’t happen. It still might have.

My own opinion (before this) is that maybe the younger-dryas climate event was triggered by an impact or an airburst, and maybe it wasn’t. I think these findings might make the impact theory less likely (due to invalidating evidence of it), but they don’t seem to prove a darn thing. (absence of evidence is not evidence of absence).

I also remember reading articles from the time of the K-T impact theory’s birth, denouncing it in similar ways.

BTW, I’m no fan of the pro- younger-dryas impact side either; many show the same inclination to a rush to judgement that the other side is.